[OT]Re: Books...

[Robert Fraser]

BCS wrote:
> Reply to Robert,
> 
>> BCS wrote:
>>
>>> The authors would
>>> publish the material for free and then make it clear that they accept
>>> donations and that they will put more priority on development
>>> activities
>>> that help those who are supporting them financially.
>>
>> That's Oracle's model -
> 
> <G> I've heard of people's dealings with them. (They at one point tried 
> to sell the state of Oregon one seat for every person in the state)
> 
> However...
> 
>> "we'll fix bugs the bugs you want us to if you
>> pay us to". That is, for an exorbitant fee, you can have the bugs that
>> affect your system prioritized. 
> 
> nix the exorbitant fee and replace it with a reasonable one ...
> 
>> (That's after charging $50k a seat for
>> the software 
> 
> charge nothing for the program to began with...
> 
>> and asking companies to pay a full-time Oracle consultant
>> to fix the numerous problems that add in their software to keep any
>> other DBA from touching it.)
> 
> give a "nice user experience"...
> 
>>
>> What this does, is makes the company put out a buggy, hard-to-use
>> piece of software (since they'll make more money if they fix fewer
>> bugs). 
> 
> and somehow avoid human nature regarding that and you might actually be 
> able to make it work.

Aye, there's the rub.

> As I said, it would be an experiment.

I'll give you that it would be an interesting experiment, but in my 
software, I'd rather prioritize the bugs that affect the largest group 
of users or are more important to the system in general than the ones 
that affect the highest-paying users. New features, though, I'd be more 
willing to see an auction system for.